There are a handful of guys that go to RIA auctions as "scouts" or "agents" or some such. They get paid by clients to go there and check out guns, research them, etc... and report back to the client. I think thats why they dont take a ton of pictures... any guns that people are really interested in have been gone over in detail and the guns are "known" so to speak.

I had an acquaintance a few years ago that had an affinity for 100k dollar 1911's and the such and he is who explained it to me. One story he told was a gun he was interested, his guy was checking it out, and it was determined to be a fraud...or at least not represented correctly... Even RIA couldnt believe it, but the "guy" was well known and respected, and the gun was pulled. I think he said he paid the guy like $500 for that information, but it saved him potentially buying a 100k dollar fraud of a pistol.